Contrabass Digest

2001-04-06

Occasionally there are posts of folks performing in concert
on theircontra instruments, so here's my next month (I'm a contrabassoonist
inLos Angeles). I just did Brahms Fourth with the
Downey Symphony
onSaturday, next is April 21st with the West
Hollywood Orchestra onCaltabiano "Pegasus: Music for a Great City" (World Premiere);
Paine"Overture to Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'"; Armer/LeGuin
"The GreatInstrument of the Geggerets"; Copland "Our Town: Music
from the FilmScore" and Carpenter "Skyscrapers: A Ballet of Modern
American Life".April 28th West Valley Symphony, Hanson "Second Symphony",
and May9-13 sitting in with the ISOMATA Orchestra (my brother,
Violist PaulNeubauer is the soloist) in Temecula and Thousand Oaks.

On top of that, I am still playing on amplified contra
with the "JoeVento Big Band" every Wednesday night in Northridge on
the BassTrombone part. You can see a recent performance
at www.oncircuit.com,it was our first try with a web broadcast and came out
okay dependingon your connection speed (it'll either appear smooth
like TV or as abunch of stills). They stuck some goofy guy named
Lance in the show,but he sang in front of, not with, the band. I
even have a solonumber "My Love for You" which you can almost hear (it's
hard to mic aBig Band with no practice - they just set up and shot).
A friend ofmine, Doug Cockfield is sitting next to me (also on Contra,
but notamplified). Do check it out, it's great fun to
play 2 hours straightevery week with such fun music! I'd love it if
we could have a lineof contras playing in there. If any of you are
in town on a Wednesdayand have your ax, no matter what it is, let me know,
and I can arrangefor you to sit in. More details on where the band
plays is on mywebsite www.dnmagic.com
on the schedule page.

So it does. Have you checked yet to see if they
have a summer program,or perhaps a student exchange program? The degree
program appears to aBS in Business/Orchestral instruments, and the class
requirements lookabout average for a music school.

Which of course brings up the next question, how many
used Sarrousaphonesare floating around the markets and Bizarres ( pun intended)
in Columbia? If nothing else, it might be a resource worth following
for a source ofreeds and blanks.

Since there is at least a little bit of tradition of instrument
making inArgentenia or Brazil, I wonder if there is a hidden maker
ofSarrousaphones in SA? Weril
apparently makes or has made some unusualand somewhat archaic brass instruments, could it be they
also producewoodwinds as well?

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001 15:32:15 -0700 Grant Green writes:

> Unless I'm just misunderstanding the language, it appears
that the> National University of Columbia offers an instrumental
music course> that includes sarrusophone: see> http://www.unal.edu.co/viceaca/pregrados.htm

> Unless I'm just misunderstanding the language, it appears
that the> National University of Columbia offers an instrumental
music course> that includes sarrusophone: see> http://www.unal.edu.co/viceaca/pregrados.htm

Looks pretty unmistakable and unambiguous!!

Wonder how many students major is sarrusophone?
Wonder what they do for instruments?